


give the monster a name

by kingdomdizzy



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Drabble, Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Gen, Young Sora, and Sora's mom is there, i love them, just kinda... soft, monster under the bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 07:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19168636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomdizzy/pseuds/kingdomdizzy
Summary: But Sora didn’t sleep; at least, not at first. He listened, eyes traveling along with the patterns of paint on his ceiling, for any noise to escape from underneath him. After Sora was able to distinctly make out his favorite constellations from his window, he rolled over in his bed, eyes heavy with sleep. “Goodnight,” he whispered to the monster.“Goodnight.”





	give the monster a name

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this real quick while i ate breakfast bc i needed to get all of this onto the internet so it wasn't in my mind with no where to go... y'know?
> 
> anywho pls enjoy and have a good day x

“ _…and Prince Riku the Brave set out into the enchanted forest in search of his true love, sword and shield in hand._ ”

Sora, clutching his bed sheets in his small fists and eyes wide in marvel, eagerly nodded at his mother. “Then what happened, Mama?”

She closed the book, setting it atop his nightstand. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Awe man,” Sora deflated but didn’t protest as he was tucked into bed. “He’s gonna find ‘em, right? His true love? He’s gotta!”

“As long as you believe in him,” she murmured, running a hand through his hair and placing a small kiss on his forehead, “I’m sure he’s capable of anything.” They bid each other goodnight, turned the lights off so the only illumination came from the window above him, and his mother quietly shut the door, leaving a small crack open.

Sora squirmed into a comfortable position under his blanket, adjusting and readjusting his head against his pillow until finally, he shut his eyes. Then imminently flicked them open again.

There was something… wrong. He sat up in his bed, glancing around his room to see if he could pinpoint the strangeness. Nothing really _looked_ different; today’s clothes were still laying on the floor (he’d promised his mom he’ll put them away first thing in the morning), his hanging ship was swaying slightly in the stagnant air, the school supplies on his desk remained unmoved. Everything was normal.

Then, he heard it.

It could only be compared to a scratch, a small scrape that came from somewhere near him. Then there was the occasional _tick_ he would hear. Then a creak. Another scratch. Sora looked around, trying to pinpoint the sound, then he realized it was coming from underneath his bed.

As slowly and quietly as he could, Sora began peaking down over his mattress onto the floor. Nothing. He hooked his feet between the wall and the other side of his bed and suspended himself over the side. He took a deep breath, brushing some of the hair falling in front of his face out of the way, and peered into the darkness. 

At first, there was nothing. Only obscurity and silence over the vast expansion of under his bed. But then, at the very edge of the dark, right where he thought the wall would be, he saw them. A pair of bright, wide green eyes staring back at him.

“ _Ack!_ ”

Sora kicked his feet, essentially unlatching them from the bed and causing him to tumble forward and onto the floor. He landed on his back, the wind getting knocked out of him. Straightaway he turned back to look under the bed again, but the light from the hallway lit his room as his mother rushed in.

“Sora, what happened? Are you okay?”

“There’s a monster under my bed!” he proclaimed, pointing to the obviously empty underside of his bedframe. 

His mother sighed, a small smile on her lips as she caressed Sora’s hair. “You probably startled him with all your noise. Let’s get to bed so you both can rest.”

She tucked him in again, reassuring that nothing would hurt him if he stayed with his head against the pillow. 

“But Mama,” he protested, “what if my leg hangs over my bed and he grabs it?”

“He’s probably just as afraid of you as you are of him,” she explained, kissing his forehead once again. “And if he’s anything like you, he needs sleep, too.”

But Sora didn’t sleep; at least, not at first. He listened, eyes traveling along with the patterns of paint on his ceiling, for any noise to escape from underneath him. After Sora was able to distinctly make out his favorite constellations from his window, he rolled over in his bed, eyes heavy with sleep. “Goodnight,” he whispered to the monster.

“ _Goodnight._ ”

+

“ _…the dragon reeled back, having been proven to that Prince Riku the Brave was worthy enough to pass through the cavern. He watched him go with his nostrils flared and filled with smoke, but Riku was not afraid._ ”

“Keep goin’, Mama!”

“That’s it for tonight, Sora,” she said, closing the book and placing it on his nightstand. She pressed a kiss to his cheek this time, tousling his hair and headed towards the door. 

“What about the monster under my bed?”

She paused, looking back from the doorframe. “Did he bother you again last night?”

Sora shook his head.

“Then maybe he’s not here to scare you,” she said, beginning to close the door. “I think he’s here to protect you.”

They said goodnight, and Sora pondered the thought in his head. _Protect me?_ He scrunched his eyebrows together at the ceiling. Why would he need to be protected? He was brave, just like Prince Riku! He could fight evil knights, ward off witches, even prove to the guardian dragon that he was worthy to pass through spooky caverns. He thought about it some more, clenching his hands into fists. _I am brave._

A soft scratch underneath him caused his heartbeat to spike. His eyes wandered over to the side of his bed. _Tick._ A lump formed in his throat as he slowly pushed himself closer to the edge. _Scratch._

“I am brave,” he whispered to himself, gripping the bedsheets as hard as he could. He hooked his feet again, trying to make it more secure by tucking his big toes under the mattress. Slowly, he dipped his head down. “I am brave.”

“ _Brave…_ ”

Sora gasped. The eyes, the same green ones from the night before, appeared in front of him. They were still far away, at the very edge of his bed, but when Sora didn’t move, they squinted at him. Sora wanted to move, but he felt frozen. I am brave, he repeated to himself, feeling his heart pound in his chest. 

“ _Sora…_ ”

His eyes widened. The green eyes bobbed slightly, moving from the corner to the center of his vision. “You… you know my name?” There was rustling and some sort of flapping… _wings?_ Sora tried to see anything else, but as he tried looking harder, the eyes disappeared. He blinked, waiting for them to appear again. “Hey, come back!”

_Tick. Tick._

“I didn’t mean to scare ya!”

Suddenly, the eyes appeared again. This time, with a face. Even upside-down, Sora could make out the curious frown through the shadows, along with the glow that radiated out of his eyes, reminding Sora of what he thought toxic waste looked like. This made him retreat slightly, only half of his face still spilling over the bed. 

The monster followed his movements, tilting his head in confusion. Sora noticed what looked like silver hair reaching his shoulders, and pale arms that held him up to the bottom of his bedframe. He noticed his nails, ground down to his fingertips and with what looked like thousands of small cuts and scrapes maybe from scratching at the bottom of his bed. He thought about what his mother had told him. 

_He’s probably just as afraid of you as you are of him._

Sora pulled his head down again, coming nearly nose to nose with the monster. “Are you afraid of me?”

The monster smiled, revealing small fangs. “Should I be?”

+

He didn’t have a name, Sora learned after crawling out of bed to sit on the floor next to the small monster who chose to stay in the shadows. As his eyes adjusted further, Sora saw small leathery wings sprouting from his back, pressed up against the confining space around him. “Can you fly?” he asked.

The monster shook his head, one of his wings twitching. “They’re not to fly. They’re to frighten.”

Sora tilted his head. “Frighten?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, picking at his nails, “I was made to be scary.”

“Well, I don’t find you all that scary once I get to know ya,” Sora beamed at him. 

The monster snorted, a small smile on his lips. “Thankfully it’s not you that I’m trying to frighten.”

“Then… who?”

He paused. “Your nightmares.”

“Oh…” Sora said, not quite understanding. “But… I don’t have nightmares.”

“Then I must be doing my job right,” he said, fangs glittering in the dark. 

Sora still didn’t quite understand. He had never been afraid of the darkness, he had never had nightmares since he could remember. Only sweet dreams that he never remembered after he woke up. Maybe that’s something he owed to the monster… to him. 

“Why don’t you have a name?”

He shrugged, pulling his knees close to his chest to rest his chin on them. “No one ever gave me one. For the longest time, it’s only been me and your dreams…”

Sora frowned. Nobody should _not_ have a name. A name tells someone who they are, and he always thought you could tell a lot from a name. He looked around, trying to find something to spark inspiration.

“I got it!” he exclaimed, reaching up to his nightstand and grabbing the book placed there. He pushed it towards the monster, pointing to the title, _Prince Riku the Brave._ “Your name will be Riku!”

He looked at the book, then back at Sora. “Why… Riku?”

“Well…” Sora lowered the book, looking at the illustration of Prince Riku and remembering all the stories he heard about him. “He’s, uh, brave, and can fight off monsters. That’s kinda what you do, right?”

He thought about it, then smiled. “Okay, I like it.”

Sora extended his hand into the shadows. “My name is Sora, nice to meet you!”

“I already know your name.”

“C’mon, just play along,” Sora pouted.

“Hi,” he sighed, tenderly taking Sora’s hand. His glowing green eyes fluctuated, changing to a neon pink blaze. “I’m Riku.”


End file.
